UK Prime Minister: We Will 'Drain The Swamp' Of Muslim Extremists

David Cameron has pledged to “drain the swamp” in which radical
Muslims are allowed to hide and develop their extreme views in
the wake of the Woolwich terror attack.

The Prime Minister told MPs he would do more to tackle the
“conveyor belt to radicalisation” which is poisoning the minds of
young Muslims.

Mr Cameron also confirmed a Telegraph report that he is
looking at finding ways to allow spies to monitor people over the
internet without the need for Commons vote.

In his first Commons statement since the brutal murder in
Woolwich, south London last month of Drummer Lee Rigby, Mr
Cameron said it was important to learn the lessons from the
attack.

He told MPs: “it is not simply enough to target and go after
violent extremists after they've become violent. We have to drain
the swamp in which they inhabit.”

This meant stopping young Muslims becoming radicalised on
university campuses and preventing extremists from taking over
Islamic centres. He said: “It means going through all of these
elements of the conveyor belt to radicalisation and making sure
we deal with them.”

Mr Cameron said the despicable crime had shocked and sickened the
country.

He said it was necessary to understand the root causes of radical
extremism if the Government was to successfully tackle the
problem.

He said: "Those who carried out this callous and abhorrent crime
sought to justify their actions by an extremist ideology that
perverts and warps Islam to create a culture of victimhood and
justify violence. We must confront this ideology in all its
forms.”

Mr Cameron said the Government’s Prevent Strategy had closed down
websites and helped people vulnerable to radicalisation.

Since 2011, more hate preachers had been excluded from the UK
than ever, while 5,700 items of terrorism material had been taken
down from the internet with almost 1,000 more blocked when they
were hosted overseas, he said.

Mr Cameron added: “But it is clear that we need to do more. When
young men born and bred in this country are radicalised and
turned into killers, we have to ask some tough questions about
what is happening in our country.”

A new Government taskforce on tackling radicalisation would see
whether rules for charities were too lax and allowed extremists
to prosper, and whether enough was done to disrupt groups that
incite hatred or violence, he said.

Mr Cameron also disclosed that he is looking at all
“non-legislative options there are” to allow police and security
services to spy on people’s activities over the internet.

The Government had considered a new Communications Data Bill, but
it was dropped from last month’s Queen’s Speech after it was
vetoed by the Liberal Democrats.

Mr Cameron said that “some 95 per cent of serious crimes involve
the use of communications data.

“As telephony moves from fixed and mobile telephony on to the
internet, our intelligence and police services will have a
problem.

“We need to address this problem, we should address it in a
sensitive and careful way, we should look at all the
non-legislative options there are.”

The Daily Telegraph disclosed last week that a team led
by Cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood was examining whether
they can bring in a large number of the proposed changes using
existing legislation, without needing a divisive vote which
Liberal Democrat MPs would oppose.